Danane,  Ivory Coast - Sunday 28 October 2007 - We are ready for Plan III

The gearbox was in place and hopes sky high when I went around the town together with Mustafa on Saturday. Unfortunately he tested the gearbox as if it was a brand new one and not a fragile piece of welded and repaired steel. That resulted in a total failure and we were set back and stranded like we were seven days ago. This was Plan B and as you might know Plan A was to purchase a used gearbox.

Plan C is a little bit more "African" as Mustafa will try to find a gearbox that is adaptable to a Defender box and try to fix it that way. I have no idea if that is something that is either recommended or feasible at all, but that's what happens when you let someone else touch your woman, you loose total control because of inexperience. On Sunday morning the team was here to pick up the gearbox and I am excited to see what comes out of the next plan.

As the picture show, we are still experiencing heavy rain and last night must have made the roads even sloppier and more difficult for my worn out Michelin tyres.

If that was not enough, the mobile telephone network is down which makes it more difficult to find a suitable donor for the adaptation. The question now is: Do we still have faith and the answer is still yes, although not as loud as before but still....